“The bricks have fallen down, but we will
rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.” (Isaiah
9:10 NKJV)

It’s fair to say I was a skeptic when I picked up a copy
of The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn. I decided to read the
book only because I had received several questions about
it. But I soon discovered that the author makes a stunning
case for a connection between the judgment of the northern
Kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 BC and the judgment of
America, underway since 9-11.

The way leaders of both countries responded to a limited
judgment with defiance and resolve but no repentance was
way beyond coincidence. And by responding with the very
same words that Isaiah attributed to Israel (Isaiah
9:10), America’s leaders left no doubt in my
mind that the judgments we’ve suffered are warnings from
God and they didn’t grasp the meaning of Isaiah’s words
even though they repeated them over and over again.

I was tracking beautifully with the author’s
interpretation of our recent history and literally
couldn’t put the book down as long as he was comparing
Israel’s history with ours.

Then What Happened?

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will
forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2
Chronicles 7:13-14).

But when he used the above passage to justify his claim
that America could experience a different outcome from the
Northern Kingdom’s, he lost me. In my mind the book was
instantly downgraded to another work of fiction, although
with convincing historical and spiritual analysis. I had a
hard time getting through the last few chapters, because
they were just a human opinion based on an incorrect
interpretation of 2 chronicles 7:14. At
its end the book had become just as vague and fanciful as
it had been precise and direct at the beginning.

If the author is correct in his assertion that as far as
God is concerned political leaders officially speak for
their country, then America is not the country of “my
people who are called by my name” to whom 2
Chronicles 7:14 is addressed. At a press
conference in Turkey in April of 2009 President Obama said
that America is not a Christian nation. He was repeating
something he’d been saying since 2007. When asked to
clarify this he once said, “What I mean is America is not
just a Christian nation. We are also a Jewish nation, a
Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a
nation of nonbelievers.”

That statement doesn’t make sense. A nation may count
among its residents people of many faiths, but it can’t be
a nation of all of them. Such a nation could only be a
nation of no official faith. And that’s what America is,
we’re a nation of no official faith. (I sometimes wonder
how it makes Christians from other countries feel when
American Christians act as if they think America and the
Church are one and the same.)

It’s true there are a lot of Christians in America. But
we all belong to the Church and the Church has no national
homeland, not in America and not anywhere else. The Church
comes from every nation on Earth but our citizenship is in
Heaven (Phil. 3:20) and that’s where our
home is. American believers are not called to repent and
save our country any more than believers who live in other
countries are called to repent and save theirs. No matter
what country we live in we’re supposed to be like Abraham,
strangers in a foreign land looking forward to the city
whose architect and builder is God (Hebr. 11:9-10).

Israel was a nation officially in a covenant relationship
with God whose eternal destiny is to live with Him in the
land He gave them here on Earth (Ezekiel 43:7).
After King Solomon’s death the nation was divided, both
physically and spiritually. The Northern Kingdom didn’t
just split from the South, they also split from God. The
Levitical Priests were expelled, and the faithful from all
of the northern tribes fled to the south with them (2
Chron. 11:16). Only the unbelievers remained in
the North. A new priesthood was formed and altars were
erected to pagan gods. Failing to win the Northern Kingdom
back, the Lord sent the Assyrians to warn them. They
refused to heed the warnings and were ultimately
conquered.

Even though our relationship with Him was different from
theirs, America officially renounced God just as the
Northern Kingdom had. Now God is judging America, and the
only way for Americans to escape the coming judgment is to
flee with the Church, like the believing Israelites fled
with the priests. (To his credit the author did provide a
moving set of instructions on how to become part of the
Church.)

Once the Lord takes us home, what’s left of America will
be destroyed for failing to heed God’s warnings just as
the Northern Kingdom was destroyed. The dual purpose of
the Great Tribulation is clearly explained in Jeremiah
30:11. The first is to completely destroy all
the nations among which the Jews have been scattered, and
the second is to discipline Israel in preparation for the
coming Kingdom Age. If you’re looking for a Bible verse
that refers to America in the end times, look at the first
part of Jeremiah 30:11.

What About Them?

Things were different in the Southern Kingdom, even
though they were in the process of abandoning God as well.
On the Eve of their conquest by the Babylonians 120 years
after the Northern Kingdom ceased to exist, God had
Jeremiah tell the exiles from the Southern Kingdom:

“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will
come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you
back to this place. For I know the plans I have for
you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not
to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah
29:10-11)

By no stretch of the imagination can this promise apply
to any one but the Jews in exile in Babylon in the 6th
century BC. Such a promise was never given to the Northern
Kingdom, nor has one been given to America.

After the 70 years were over, God brought the Jews who
were willing to return back to the Promised Land, just
like He said He would. But this was not the fulfillment of
2 Chronicles 7:14 either. The 70 year
period of the captivity had been predetermined by God and
at its end He brought them back like He said. 2
Chronicles 7:14 will be fulfilled when the
Jewish leadership invokes the promise of Hosea
6:1-2 and petitions the Lord’s return to save
them.

When Will That Be?

When Israel’s rejection of Jesus as their Messiah was
complete, He finally left them alone. It had been 40 days
since He provided the unmistakable sign they had asked for
(the sign of Jonah, Matt. 12:39) to
prove He was who He claimed to be. 40 being the number of
testing, their time of testing had expired and they had
failed. In Hosea 5:15 the prophet had
Him saying,

“Then I will go back to my place until they admit
their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery
they will earnestly seek me.”

When the judgments of the Great Tribulation are at their
worst, Israel will officially petition the Lord’s return.

“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to
pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he
will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive
us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may
live in his presence” (Hosea 6:1-2).

When they do, the Lord will pour out His Spirit of Grace
and Supplication. Their eyes will be opened and they
will look upon Him who they have pierced and they will
mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child. (Zechariah
12:10). Some scholars have suggested that Isaiah
53 will be their official prayer of confession.

On the day the Lord returns He will be King of the whole
Earth. On that day there will be one Lord and His name
the only name (Zech. 14:9). Then
Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through
all generations. Their blood guilt which I have not
pardoned, I will pardon. The Lord dwells in Zion (Joel
3:20-21). 2 Chronicles 7:14
will finally be fulfilled.

On three separate occasions just before the Southern
Kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians, God told
Jeremiah to stop praying for the Jews because He wasn’t
listening any more (Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14. 14:11).
I believe America may also have reached that point with
Him. It’s clear that America’s unbelievers don’t want the
Church to save them, and the only believers still fighting
for America’s future are the ones who don’t understand
what’s ahead for the Church.

In summary, it’s not the Church’s job to save America.
Our job is to store up treasure in Heaven by helping those
who can no longer help themselves on Earth. In this way we
show forth the light and love of the Lord in this dark and
dying place. Selah 01-28-12